Chinese Internet pioneer Sohu.com unveiled a 10% increase in revenues, but losses of $89 million, for the second quarter of the year. The company said that it will launch its Sogou business on a U.S. stock market through an IPO as early as market conditions permit.
Established in 2004, Sogou operates what Sohu describes as “controlled Internet search” through its own ranking system, and is China’s second or third ranked search engine, behind market leader Baidu. Providing search for Tencent’s WeChat social media platform has helped it grow in recent years. Sogou revenues grew by 30% quarter on quarter to $211 million.
Parent company, Sohu.com saw revenues hit $461 million in the April to June period, up 10% year on year, or 23% compared with the first quarter. They were lifted by having its “Legacy Tian Long Ba Bu Bu” become one of the biggest online games in China during the quarter.
The company said that like China’s video market leaders, it is also investing more in its own content. “Our brand advertising business performance was relatively soft, largely due to lackluster video ad sales. Nonetheless, for Sohu Video, we have been shifting our content focus to self-developed dramas. We expect the move to generate substantial cost savings and improve our bottom-line results in 2018,” Charles Zhang, Sohu chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
